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631st preparing to deploy
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| By: James Williams Monitor editor |
July 02, 2009 |
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Members of the 631st Maintenance Company include platoon leader 2nd Lt. Chris Johns (left) and four Keystone Heights residents (l-r): Pvt. Eric Carr (front), Staff Sgt. David Reynolds, Spec. Brian Chapman and Staff Sgt. Mike Malone.
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The 175 or so members of the 631st Maintenance Company were in training for crowd control last week. The idea was to use the least intrusive methods and to avoid lethal response.
A line of male and female guardspersons-about 30 of the troops are women-moved forward and diagonally to the left on command, imagining that they were dispersing a crowd in an urban environment.
A member of the 690th training squadron gave them tips and showed them how to hold their M-16 and how to stand in relation to the person in front of them. Earlier the training had involved "actors," who made up a crowd of people screaming in their faces.
Crowd control was just one of the military skills the men and women will learn before they leave for Iraq later this year. They are also training in basic urban operations, search and seizure, controlling sniper fire, watching for any hostile intent, detecting improvised explosive devices and other convoy training.
On Friday, troops were being trained to get out of a Humvee if it turns over. If it's on its side, it's one routine, if the vehicle is completely upside down, its another.
Members of the 631st range in age from 18 to 57 according to 2nd Lt. Chris Johns, one of four platoon leaders in the company.
The 631st's main mission is maintenance of military ground vehicles, from jeeps to Humvees to tanks. But according to Johns, no matter what the specialty, today's Guardsmen must be fully trained and combat ready, especially if they're bound for Iraq.
The company has a long tradition and is well known and honored in Bradford County, Union County and the Keystone Heights area. Local Guardsmen have been assigned to the unit for years, as far back as the Vietnam era. Today, its members still come from nearby, but also from all over Florida. Johns is from St. Augustine, for example.
Normally, the unit's home is the Starke Armory, but that is being remodeled at present. For training and administrative purposes, the company will hang out at Camp Blanding till renovations are completed later this year.
Keystone Heights resident and 631st guardsman Pvt. Eric Carr worked at REDD team until it was sold to the Alcoa Company. He's been in the National Guard for about a year and two months.
The Guardsmen, local and nearby, have varied bios. Spc. Brian Chapman has lived in Keystone Heights all his life and graduated from the local high school in 1992. He works at Camp Blanding as a full-time technician.
Staff Sgt. Mike Malone moved from Orange Park and has lived on Gas Line Road for the last year. He's been in the Guard for about 15 years.
Staff Sgt. David Reynolds has been in Keystone Heights for five years. He, too, is a full time technician with the guard.
The company will end its Camp Blanding training around the first of July and take a two week leave. There's a late July deployment ceremony in Starke, sponsored by the North Florida Regional Chamber of Commerce and then it's off for Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin. From there they head for Kuwait and then to Iraq in late fall for a year's deployment.
Many of the Guardsmen are married and will leave Florida families behind as they deploy. One female member of the company is pregnant and will not be sent abroad. She receives a temporary assignment stateside until at least six months after the baby is born.
Sgt. Malone's wife, Mindy, will be the family readiness coordinator, the person responsible for family maintenance, care packages and morale-boosting projects.
Gainesville resident Capt. Maria Garcia, 33, is the company commander, her second stint in such a leading position. Her first unit had 30 guardsmen when she took it over and 80 when she left.
Garcia said, "It is my responsibility to make sure the soldiers are trained, taken care of and that the mission is accomplished."
Her main enlisted support is 1st Sgt. Ellis Sirmans, from Jacksonville. One of his responsibilities is to see that the company is well supplied with "bullets, beans and band aids."
At age 43, Sirmans is one of the company's "old men." In the military for 25 years now , he remembers the days of Desert Storm, long ago, before troops in the fields had access to cell phones, the Internet and daily e-mails from home.
Sirmans said he couldn't think of many ways in which the troops were different now than when he first entered the military, though he believed they were now better trained and educated by the time they joined the military.
"More enlisted men these days have college degrees," Lt. Johns added.
Later, Johns also said that the image of grease monkeys with wrenches in a motor pool were gone. These days, the military vehicles are equipped with high tech electronics weapons and communications systems, GPS, even air conditioning. Not only do the maintenance crews have to be battle ready, they also have to keep up.
The men said they didn't think Iraq's heat would be like the heat they knew from Florida. Last week, Jones said, someone put a thermometer on the ground at Camp Blanding and it measured 127 degrees.
Iraq can get up to 140 degrees, the men said, but it's a more arid desert heat and not as humid and more tolerable.
The troops have an edge of readiness and capability about them, but there is in the background the knowledge that Iraq is a dangerous place.
"We stress situational awareness," Garcia said. "After all this is what we've been training for since all of us first entered basic training. We've been taught for years to look for signs of trouble and to work together."
Earlier during the day last Friday, the troops were in a JAG briefing, which covered the Geneva Convention. They would also be given fairly detailed information on cultural traits in Iraq, including notes on alcohol, addressing civilians and especially women.
Asked what she would like to say to the public, Garcia replied," Tell them we appreciate their support. We know that they are behind us. We feel their support."
Sirmans and Johns said this was true. Often, they said, members of the public come up to them and insist on paying for their meal. Others simply say, "Thank you for what you're doing,"
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©Bradford County Telegraph 2009
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